Building a globally unrivalled environment for the development of software

Alys Brett, Neil Chue Hong, James Hetherington,

Simon Hettrick, Barbara Montanari and Christopher Woods.

3. An environment to build world-leading skills in software

• Recognising software as important, e.g. REF
• Improve funding effectiveness, e.g. landscape analysis

• Funding to meet challenges, e.g. challenge fund
• Support software over lifetime, e.g. algorithm dev, mid-life, community codes, products

• Increase expertise availability, e.g. world-leading RSE Facility, new communities
• Develop skills, e.g. computational research fund, training funds

1. A policy environment that recognises and rewards software

2. A funding environment to extract value from software

Recommendations

3. Skills

• Policy must keep pace with rapid developments in field (Cloud)
• Skills needed to steer policy (AAAI, Network)
• Software as infrastructure (Data: Software RDI)

• Software investment is vital (SC: recs. 5 & 7)
• Predictable funding (Cloud, SC)
• New algorithms and techniques fund (Data, SC)

• Skills and retention (general RSE & ResOps: Cloud; HPC: SC, RSEs: Data)
• Meet demand for expertise (Cloud, SC, AAAI)
• New communities (Cloud: working group, ResOps; SC: RSEs; Data: data professionals)

1. Policy

2. Funding

Links to other papers